WHAT IS CULTURE?

  • A social creation of shared beliefs / attitudes, practices, behaviors, and certain objects

  • Could be material and not material

Material aspects of culture

  • This includes anything real or tangible that has significance / meaning to a group of people 

    • For example in the US a ring means you are married

Different types of artifacts

  • Food

  • Clothing

  • Adornments for the body

  • Tools

  • Weapons

  • Housing (Laundry Room)

  • Transportation

  • Personal possessions

Non- material culture

  • Beliefs, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors of a group of people 

    • Such as bowing, or sticking up the middle finger

    • Or also using your hand to eat

Sociofacts

  • Regulates how the individual functions relative to the group

    • Such as shaking someones hand or holding the door

    • Or calling your teacher Mr. Bailey rather than his first name

Mentifacts

  • Are the meanings of the behaviors 

    • A ring means you are married

Habits, Customs, and Traditions

  • A habit is what an individual does in a situation repeatedly 

    • An example, is showering everyday, studying a lot before a test

  • Custom or cultural trait, what a group does in a certain situation repeatedly 

    • For example, shaking hands, holding a door, or putting your tooth under the pillow

  • Traditions are customs, that are cherished and passed down at a specific time or event

    • Diwali is an example

Taboo

  • Taboo is something that is a behavior that is not culturally acceptable to a group of people

    • An example of this, is picking your nose, it could also be being gay

Culture Complex (CC) cultural trait (CT)

  • A collection of traits that make up a particular culture

  • Culture Complex = All of the cultural traits or for a particular aspect

  • CT + CT + CT = CC

Cultural Hearth

  • A core area where a culture starts and develops then diffuses

Cultural Region (CR)

  • Area with similar cultural beliefs

Cultural Realm

  • A major world area showing characteristics of cultural distinctiveness

  • It is a summation of a cultural regions of that trait

  • CR + CR + CR = Cultural Realm

Cultural - core, domain + sphere  

  • Core- Characteristic is overly dominant

  • Domain - Most share the characteristic

  • Sphere - Some share the characteristic 

Cultural Diffusion

  • The spread of culture or characteristic from one region to another

Folk Culture

  • Changes very little over time

    • Reinforced from generation to generation by the older generations

    • Found in rural areas

      • Mountains, islands, desserts, colder places, rainforests, native american reservations

    • Tremendous pressure to conform

    • Little impact on the landscape / environment

    • Typically homogenous groups

Folk Housing Styles

  • Salt-box (New England) Maine, Vermont

    • Have fire place in middle, have really slanted roofs so that the snow slides down, have roof more on one side so that the sun points towards the windows

  • I- House, 4 over 4 (Middle Atlantic) New York, Indiana 

    • Chimney in middle, slanted roofs, stone material, beds on top 

  • Tidewater / Plantation style (South) Virginia

    • Had little elevation on house for flooding and can board up windows, slanted roof for rain

  • Shotgun (South) Alabama

    • Was long and like a tube, created so that it would stay cool, there would be a flow of air through the house

  • Adobe (Southwest) Arizona, New Mexico

    • Sometimes in hill because it is colder there, they use adobe because there is not a lot of trees

Indigenous people

  • The original inhabitants of a certain place; sources of folk culture

    • Yanamamo of the Amazon

    • Native Americans in the US

Ecotourism

  • Tourism is environmentally sensitive areas that are designed in a way to exploit the natural area while doing minimal damage to the environment

    • Normally MDC visit LDC

    • Typically sources of folk culture

Cultural Ecology

  • The study of how different cultures impact the environment and how the environment influences the culture

Adaptive v Maladaptive 

  • Adaptive - Culture that is shaped by its environment

  • Maladaptive - Opposite… may damage the environment

    • Folk is more common for adaptive, pop is more maladaptive

Globalization of Culture

  • Cultures are becoming similar but are more shaped by MDCs

    • American control of media, then movies fashion by MDCs

  • Glocalization - adaptation of pop culture that isn’t taboo in local culture

Acculturation 

  • The addition of cultural traits while holding on to traditional values

Assimilation 

  • The process by which traditional traits are lost and becomes part of dominant culture

Sequent Occupance

When a cultural landscape reflects different cultures that occupied same place at a different time

Carl Sauer & the Cultural Landscape

  • What an area looks like because of the interaction of a group’s culture

Multiculturalism

  • The celebration of difference cultures in an area of diversity

  • CENTRIPITAL FORCE - important for short answer questions

  • Centripetal bands us together

  • Centrifugal splits apart